Scripture: Luke 6:27-45
Introduction
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
- I usually don’t remember sermons very well, but Lesley’s really message stuck with me.
- The main thing that I took away is that God deliberately withheld what Paul’s thorn was.
- As Lesley pointed out, keeping this ambiguous means the lesson can be applied universally.
- And that’s a good thing because every one of us has some kind of thorn in the flesh.
- Because as Paul also wrote in Romans 3:23: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
- Our thorn could be physical, mental, or spiritual: maybe more than one.
- Bringing this concept forward another week cried out for Luke’s Gospel and this passage about judging others.
- If God’s grace is sufficient to cover whatever thorn we all have, then who are we to judge?
- God is not judging, He is fixing. So, why do we think it’s OK to judge others?
- Instead of dwelling on what’s wrong with people, we should be looking for the best in people because that’s what God does.
- Today we are hearing directly from Jesus recorded in Luke’s Gospel.
- This passage comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
- If I wanted to focus on the sermon itself; including the Beatitudes, I would have used Matthew’s Gospel, but I wanted to drill down into a few key points.
- Here’s what Jesus is telling me:
- Love your enemies
- Don’t judge others
- Look for the best in others
1. Love your enemies
- Jesus said: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
- That’s pretty easy right? Sure, right until somebody tailgates you or cuts you off.
- No, it’s not easy to love your enemies; that’s why they’re called “enemies.”
- They are enemies because they did something to hurt you, or they are against you.
- That’s why they became enemies in the first place.
- Jesus said: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
- So, if we keep treating enemies as enemies then they will always STAY enemies.
- Imagine if we treated our enemies as though they were friends?
- Jesus asked: “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?”
- People who love you are easy to love aren’t they?
- It doesn’t take much to return kindness for kindness.
- In Isaiah 14:14, Isaiah quotes Satan as saying:
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.
- Satan wanted to be like God, but in his arrogance, he totally missed the boat.
- Jesus told us exactly how to be like the Most High in verse 35:
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
- How much better would our life be if we learned to show mercy to others who hurt us?
2. Don’t judge others
- We can’t have mercy on others if we spend our time judging them.
- After I heard Lesley’s sermon about the universality of thorns in the side, we all got ‘em, I immediately thought about verse 41:
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
- This is the central point of today’s message because judging and finding fault in others is something that we do if we’re being honest.
- It’s because we are human.
- Jesus broke it down as simple as possible for us:
- He said: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.”
- I don’t think any of us like to be judged. We’re all just doing the best we can.
- So, He’s telling us if you want to avoid being judged, stop judging other people.
- He said: “Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.”
- Condemning means we’ve gone beyond simple judgment to writing someone off completely.
- It’s sad to think that people would just push us aside and say we have no value.
- Jesus is telling us you don’t want to be condemned so don’t condemn others.
- Jesus said: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”
- We all make mistakes, and we all need to be forgiven when we make mistakes.
- Jesus is telling us we get all the forgiveness in life that we need if we will forgive others.
- Finally, Jesus said: “Give, and it will be given to you.”
- All we must do is to ask and the only criteria is that we need to give to others.
- If we take this proactive approach as Jesus suggests, we won’t have time to judge others because we will be too busy looking out for our fellow man.
3. Look for the best in others
- If we are loving our enemies and not judging others, that opens up a great opportunity.
- We are free to see the good in others.
- Jesus speaks of this in terms of bearing fruit.
- This means that the first step towards seeing the best in others is to look at their fruit.
- If the fruit is good, then the person must be good as well.
- And if the person is good, then the good things in their heart will shine through.
- An evil person will bring out the evil stored up in their heart.
- When we stop criticizing and judging we can then begin to see things in people we may have missed.
- Think about Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well.
- She was drawing water by herself during the hottest part of the day so that she could avoid the stares and judgment of other people.
- Jesus looked beyond her marital situation and looked into her heart.
- Because of this, she was so deeply moved that she became a great evangelist for Jesus.
- When we set aside our prejudices and preconceived notions about people; and take the time to look for the best in people; we may be surprised with what we find.
- Jesus is telling us how He sees people and how He always sees the best in people.
- Even yet while we are sinners, Jesus died on the cross for us – He loved us so much,
- Try looking at people in a whole new light – in the light of the Savior.
- Set aside your judgments and prejudice and look for the best,
- You may be amazed by how different people look,
- When you look for the best in others, you just might find it.